Such Luck!
by Lentex
Summary: After the events of NSL, Lincoln learns that his sisters knew that his lie about being bad luck was fake, but went along with it anyway to teach him with a lesson. Enraged, Lincoln decides to teach them a lesson in return. Only after he does this does he realize that he may have gone too far.
1. A Note

**Obviously, there's quite a few No Such Luck fanfictions on this site. Still, I've always had an idea floating around in my head for a sequel to the infamous episode. Always, I have decided not to go through with my idea in fear of just adding to the endless pool.**

 **Today, March 13th, 2018, is the 1 year anniversary of the episode's air date. After some debate with myself, I've decided to begin writing and uploading my NSL story.**

 **The first chapter is pretty short, and that's because I wrote it originally far too long for my liking. Took the first two segments here set up the plot. If I got any deeper into the story, I'd be well over my desired word limit. Still, I'm confidant in the quality of what I'm about to bring. I wouldn't be uploading the 6,401th NSL story if I wasn't sure that I'd be bringing something new to the table.**

* * *

In his hand, Lincoln clutched the note.

The note, in Lincoln's opinion, was the point things began to get out of hand. It was when his harmless white lie grew into something much bigger and worse. It had been the moment Lincoln realized that it needed to _end._

 _Sorry Lincoln, but you can't sleep here tonight._

 _We just can't risk it._

Risk _what?_ Sure, Lincoln knew that he made a mistake by pretending to be bad luck. In his defence, though, he would have never imagined that his sisters would take it _this_ far. Even Lisa, the supposed genius of the household, had fallen for the lie.

He was sick of being dragged all over town, nearly every day without a break, going to his sisters activities. In fact, just last Wednesday, he had woken up, gone to a comedy routine, a concert, a soccer game, and, finally, a pageant. By the time he got home, it was already dark outside, and he was so tired that Lincoln immediately collapsed on his bed and went to sleep for the night.

A guy just needs some time to himself every now and then! Was that too much to ask?

Apparently, in the Loud house, it was. That's why Lincoln went along with the accusation of him being back luck. Sure, it wasn't the most _moral_ thing to do. It was a lie, plain and simple. Still, it was a small white lie, one that would give Lincoln some much needed peace and quiet.

For awhile, it worked fine. He was uninvited to all of Lynn's sports activities after she had labeled him as 'bad luck'. Lincoln was offended. Why should _he_ be blamed for Lynn losing her game? It was entirely her fault, but she couldn't admit that.

Soon, though, Lincoln realized that his misfortune could be turned into opportunity. He began to go along with the accusation that he was bad luck. Eventually, he was able to make the rest of the Loud siblings began to believe in the 'bad luck' falsehood. First Leni, then Lana, and, eventually, the entire Loud household, including his parents.

Things were great. He finally got to spend some time home alone, an occurrence that was all too uncommon for him. Soon, though, things took a turn for the worse. Not only was he exiled from his family's activities, but also from the _family_ itself as well. He wasn't allowed to go out with them anywhere, he was forced to eat breakfast in the living room by himself, and, presently…

...he had to sleep outside.

Lincoln crumpled up the note. He was banished from his own bedroom. In a fit of rage, he threw the ball of paper across the yard. He fell to hit butt, bought his knees to his chest, and held them tightly.

How did his situation get this out of hand? Sure, he was wrong to pretend to be bad luck, but was _this_ what he deserved?

* * *

"Don't you think we're taking this a bit too far?"

Leni's question caused a silence to fall upon Lori's bedroom. Presently, the Loud sisters were gathered for a siblings meeting to discuss Lincoln.

Lynn gave a toothy smile. "No way! This is what Lincoln gets for pretending to be bad luck!"

"This family supports each other," said Lori, "and Lincoln is trying to avoid our activities. It's not right. This may be the only way for him to learn".

"Still, aren't we going a bit overboard?" Luna swung her feet in the air from off of the side of Leni's bed. "I mean, we're making him sleep _outside._ "

"This is the best way for Lincoln to learn his mistake," Lori said. "Besides… it's only for one day." She paused. "I promise."

Luna didn't say so, but she noticed that Lori's 'promise' did not sound genuine at all.


	2. A Deal with the Devil

Leni watched on through the kitchen window at Lincoln brushed the dirt off of his shirt and tried to get the twigs out of his hair.

She felt bad for her little brother. Sure, it was wrong for him to pretend to be bad luck, but was _this_ what he deserved? Leni wasn't the smartest Loud, but even she knew that she and her sisters were probably being a little too hard on him. How was _this_ supposed to help him learn?

Lori walked in the kitchen, still wearing her nightwear. In the morning, Leni usually got dressed before eating breakfast. She didn't understand why so many people liked eating in their jammies… everyone has their preferences, she supposed.

"Lori?" she asked as the eldest Loud began to pour herself a mug of coffee. "We should stop pretending that Linky is bad luck… I think he's learned his lesson."

There was a moment of silence as Lori took a sip from her coffee. "We'll quit the jig at the end of the day. I want to make sure Lincoln never tries to get out of going to our activities again."

Leni shook her head. "I don't like bullying him… that's what we're doing. Bullying him."

"It's not 'bullying' if you have good intentions, Leni. Lincoln may be _thanking_ us after this is over. We need to show him that it's never okay to lie, especially when its to get out of supporting the family. It's selfish and dishonest."

Leni grew frustrated. Not with Lori, but with the situation in general. Why did things have to be so _complicated?_ There was no clear right or wrong here. Lincoln was at fault for lying to the family, but was that really grounds for them to start lying _back_ to him? Leni thought not, but then again, it _would_ be beneficial in the end if he learned from his mistake, and nothing would help him learn better than the 'bad luck' thing.

When Leni was confused (which happened quite a bit), she always did what she thought was best. Right now, she thought it was best if her and her sisters confessed to Lincoln that they were only pretending that he was bad luck, and let things go back to normal. Even though he tried lying to avoid coming out to support the family, Lincoln didn't deserve what they were doing to him. It was a mistake to even start. He was usually so _nice,_ such a _good_ little brother… because he messed up one time, he deserved to sleep _outside?_ Leni didn't agree with that.

"I really think we should stop," Leni said at last.

"We agreed at the meeting last night that we'd stop the scheme at the end of the day today. Just give it until tonight, and we'll end this charade. I promise."

Leni grew frustrated. _Grrr,_ why did things always have to be _complicated!_ It confused her. She knew in her heart that doing this to Lincoln was wrong… but Lori insisted against it, and she made herself sound so right.

Leni sighed. "Okay… just until the end of the day."

She'd keep up the scheme for awhile longer, but she wouldn't like it.

* * *

In the master bedroom, a different conversation about Lincoln and bad luck was taking place.

"I don't know how I feel about this," Rita said, looking in her closet for her outfit for the day.

Lynn was fastening a tie around his neck. "We already agreed to play along with the scheme. It's only until the end of the day."

Rita shook her head. "They made Lincoln sleep _outside_ last night, Lynn."

"I know… but if we stop now, our daughters will be mad at us… all 10 of them."

Rita bit her lip. The last thing she wanted was ten angry children. She knew it probably wasn't right for her to be involved in the bad luck routine, but it would only work if she and her husband were involved, too.

Her son had tried to slip out of going to family activities, and he had accomplished so by lying. That wasn't right, and if she had learned about it sooner, she'd have punished him quite severely. At first, she thought it was a good idea to pretend that he was bad luck, at least for a little while. It was a clever way of making him realize that small lies could grow. She and her husband usually let their kids come up with creative solutions to problems and let them resolve most conflicts on their own. She remembered when Lincoln had protested his job of taking out the trash. The Loud parents had stood by and watched, letting their children resolve the chore issue on their own accord.

In the beginning, they only did small things, like making him eat in the living room and not letting him come with the movies to them. If he pretended that he was unlucky enough to not go to Lynn's baseball game or Leni's charity fashion show, then why should he have been able to do fun stuff like go to the cinema with the family?

Then, things escalated past the point that Rita had liked them to. Still, she had made a commitment to follow through with the scheme. After all, one day the entire family could look back at it and laugh, and Lincoln would learn a valuable lesson in the process. It was just until the end of the day, after all...

After some thought, the Loud mother slowly nodded. "Fine, I guess we can see this through until the end."

* * *

Lisa stood on her tiptoes. On her bedroom science table, she watched a beaker full of dangerous chemicals bubble up over the heat of a flame.

The little scientist was studying enzymes, and was getting closer to a cure for the common cold. It was the next logical step after curing strep throat. She found fun in research, doing things that would bore most people, but _this_ work was tiresome even for her. Most of what she had to do was simply _watch_ stuff, sometimes for hours on end.

While waiting for her chemicals to reach her desired temperature, Lisa's mind wandered, as it often did when she grew board.

She reflected upon Lincoln and the family's ongoing machination against him. As much as she hated to admit it, Lisa's sisters had actually come up with a pretty smart plan. If Lincoln wanted to be bad luck so bad, then they would treat him as if he was bad luck; he'd experience both the positives, such as getting the house to himself all the time, but also the negatives, such as him being forced into a hot squirrel suit while at the beach.

It couldn't last long, though. Sooner or later, things would get out of hand… if they hadn't already. Lincoln had slept in the backyard last night. Lisa was surprised that her parents had allowed it. They usually let their children solve their own issues, but… this was on a new level.

Oh well. Lisa didn't have time to be bothered with such inane and trivial matters.

* * *

Lincoln was mad.

Walking home from school, as he was now, the boy often had time to himself to think. Right now, he was mulling over his situation at home. Whenever he wanted to go anywhere with his family, he was forced to do so wearing his squirrel suit. Last night, he had to sleep _outside._ Even after his confession that he wasn't actually bad luck, his family _ignored_ him. Adding insult to injury, his father had told him to step farther away from the house.

He loved his family, but sometimes, they could _really_ be cruel. The time they enacted 'sister fight protocol'… the time they tortured him for being too slow to pick a spot to vacation… and now, _this._ Lincoln kicked a nearby can in anger.

"Something bothering you, kid?"

He looked up. Leaning on a tree, a man wearing jeans and a denim jacket looked back at him. He wore two buttons on each breast of his jacket— one was a yellow smiley face, and the second button was of a pig wearing a policeman's cap that had the text _HOW'S YOUR PORK_ below it. He wore cowboy boots, an odd choice of footwear. His hair was long, and his expression was seemingly friendly.

The man came off from leaning on the tree, stepping forward.

"Something tells me that you've been treated unfairly. Is that true?"

Lincoln was silent at first, offput by the weird man. He reflected on his question.

 _Yes,_ thought the boy. _I_ have _been treated unfairly._

Timidly, Lincoln nodded.

"A nice little boy like you shouldn't be treated the way you have," said the stranger. "You're a gentle soul, and you wouldn't hurt a fly. You've been very unlucky."

By this point, Lincoln was beginning to wonder how the man knew so much about his situation. Still, he liked what he was saying.

The stranger cracked a smile. "Tell you what. I'd like to _help_ you, Lincoln Loud. I don't enjoy seeing good people mistreated." He paused. "Is that something you'd like?"

For the first time, Lincoln spoke to the man. "Y...Yeah."

He laughed; a big, hearty laugh. The man put his hands on his stomach, leaned back, and roared laugher. At first, Lincoln was scared. His nerves were quickly calmed, though… there was something about this person that he liked.

"In that case, Lincoln… let's make a deal."


	3. An Axe to Grind

Lincoln sat in his room, wearing a tall, green top hat with a clover hanging off of it. It looked ridiculous, but according to the strange man, it would be the end to all his problems.

Three wishes.

 _Wear this hat,_ the stranger had said, _and three times, you can wish for anything your little heart desires._

He thought for a long time before speaking.

"I want Lynn to regret what she did to me," he said softly, a hint of vengeance in his voice.

* * *

Sunlight poured through Lynn's bedroom window, hitting her skin, warming her up.

She was sitting on her bed, hitting her tennis ball off of her bedroom wall. It hit with a soft _thud_ before bouncing back to her.

 _Thud. Thud. Thud._

Eventually growing bored of this, she began to roll the ball in her hands. Sure, it was just a tennis ball, but this one was special to her. She won her first tournament with this one. Ever since that day, she kept it safe under her bed. Before an important match, she would always play with the ball, bouncing it off of her wall and catching it, as a ritual of good luck.

Luck. It was what had started this entire mess. Lynn lost her baseball game, and she wanted to come up with _any_ reason for her failure other than her own fault. She couldn't admit it to defeat; not to her team, not to her family, not even to herself. _That's_ why she had accused Lincoln of being bad luck. Not because she actually _believed_ it, but because she needed a scapegoat to pin the blame on.

She had been thinking about recent events quite a bit. She didn't know why it happened, but about an hour ago, Lynn had begun to feel immense sorrow and regret for how she had treated Lincoln. She realized just how underappreciated he was. A wave a guilt and regret washed over the young athlete. Why did she not realize this until _now?_

Lynn remembered the time that he spent an entire family camping trip trying to make things better for her and her sisters. He got bug bites, he got sore from running around all day to service the family, and, hell, he even got attacked by a bear at one point.

Lynn remembered the time that Lincoln had missed his convention that he desperately wanted to go to after taking the blame for clogging the toilet with a Princess Pony comic, which was actually _Lucy's_ doing. As her roommate, Lucy was expectedly closer to Lynn than most and often vented to her. The little goth made Lynn _promise_ not to tell anyone the secret.

Lynn remembered the time she had let Lincoln climb on her back before running around the house. _Fast, faster!_ he cried, laughing.

He was such a good brother… and here she was, threatening to attack him with a baseball bat if he refused to go to her game and then turning around and blaming him for her loss.

What kind of big sister was she?

She began to feel sick and horrible. How could she be so… so _evil?_

Lynn slowly walked out of her room…

...before coming back minutes later, axe in hand, running full speed at the ball.

She gave a piercing loud war cry before bringing the axe behind her head and swinging down with all of her might on the tennis ball. The head of the axe cut through it like a hot knife through butter.

In her rage, Lynn had swung with much more force than required. It was only _after_ her attack did she notice this; the axe blade was now deep in her floor. There was a large tear in the carpet, and even the wood below it had been damaged. Various small wood fragments now littered the area around the area where Lynn had swung the axe down.

"What on _earth_ is going on in here!?"

Rita stormed into the room. Her eyes went wide upon seeing the axe, her mouth fell agape. Lynn hadn't seen her mom this surprised with her since she had accidentally knocked down Lincoln at the playground many years ago, causing him to chip his tooth.

"Oh… oh my _God_ , Lynn, what are you _doing?!_ "

By now the Loud mother had ran over to Lynn and grabbed her, dragging the athlete backward and away from the axe. She quickly took her daughter by the shoulders, turned her around, and kneeled down to meet her at eye level.

" _Lynn Loud!_ You will tell me this _instant_ what you're doing with an _axe_ in your room!"

There was a pause as Lynn thought. In her rage, she had done something stupid. It wasn't unusual for her; as much she hated to admit it, the sporty Loud sister had a short temper and didn't take crap from anyone. Ever since the incident, Lynn had been moping and self loathing nonstop.

What had she accomplished by doing so? Not a single thing. Feeling regretful and sorry for yourself did absolutely nothing to improve things. Lincoln was possibly the best brother in the world. Kind, compassionate, selfless… these words barely scratched the surface of the Loud brother. Sure, he wasn't perfect… no one is, no one ever was... but Lynn knew that she couldn't ask for a better little brother. He deserved better.

Lynn had to make it up to him.

No matter what it took, no matter how much pride she had to swallow, no matter how hard it was, Lynn knew for a fact that she absolutely had to make things better. For the past who-knows-how-long, she had been locked away in her room, moping around. That ended _now._

Lincoln would be swimming in so much sisterly love and respect that he would drown in it.

 _DROWN IN IT!_

Lynn stepped a bit back from her mother, walking backward slowly. She had her answer.

"I'm going to _drown_ Lincoln!"


	4. A Redemption

Lincoln's eyes opened. He screamed, nearly having a heart attack.

It was morning, the start of a new day, and the first thing he saw when waking up was Lynn directly in his face, staring at him.

"Hey, little bro!" she chirped. "I hope you had an amazing sleep!"

Lincoln was breathing heavily, still unnerved by his rude awakening. Lynn was on top of him.

"I made you some breakfast!" The athlete held out a tray with a generous amount of food— fresh, crispy bacon, scrumptious scrambled eggs, crispy, buttered toast, cold milk, and steaming hot pancakes with maple, blueberry, _and_ strawberry syrup.

"Eat up!"

He scratched the back of his head.

"Geez, Lynn… you didn't have to—"

Her expression changed within the span of less than a second. Lynn became angry, almost on the verge of frenzy.

"Of _course_ I did!" she yelled, offended. "You're the best brother _anyone_ could ask for, and you're telling me you don't deserve a warm, yummy breakfast in bed? You're crazy!"

"Lynn, I—"

She put a finger to his mouth, silencing him. " _Hush._ Lincoln, I've underappreciated you for way too long! I've even… mistreated you. It wasn't right what I did, threatening you with a bat, forcing you to go to my game, making you sleep _outside_ … I've been a _terrible_ sister." She paused. "But that ends _now!_ "

She began to laugh, and _loudly._ Lincoln had never seen her act this… this _weird._ All he wanted was for her to regret what she did to him, but this was insane.

" _Whatever_ you need," she said, "No matter how big or small, I'll do anything for you, Lincoln. You're my brother, you're kind, you _deserve_ it!"

By the end of her rant, Lynn's voice was loud. She was practically yelling.

"For starters… could you get off of me? You're kind of heavy."

Lynn gasped, and wanting to obey Lincoln as fast as humanly possible, she lunged off of his bed, hitting the wall. The white-haired boy's room shook as she collided.

" _Jesus,_ Lynn!"

Lynn was on the ground, now, slumped up against the wall. She felt dizzy. "I… I'm so sorry!"

She stood up, but her head was still spinning. Clumsily, she crawled over to the side Lincoln's bed, and, still on her knees, buried her head in his carpet.

" _I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry,_ " she repeated softly.

Lincoln sighed. In the chaos, Lynn has knocked his breakfast onto the ground. Spilled food and drink littered his floor.

" _Calm down,_ " Lincoln urged. "It's _fine._ Lynn, could you just clean this mess up?"

She began to cry. Lincoln looked on in awe.

" _Thank you,_ " she said, her voice barely above a whisper. " _Thank you… s-so much… for f-forgiving me._ "

The intensity of her sobbing increased. She looked up; tears ran down her face like a river.

" _T-Thank you… thank you… thank you…_ "

* * *

Lincoln began to get dressed as Lynn cleaned up the mess, throwing on jeans over his underwear and finding his favorite orange polo shirt for the day.

"Would you like a new breakfast, dear brother?"

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Eh, you can just make me some toas—"

Before he knew it, Lynn had bolted out of his room and ran downstairs. Lana was at the toaster, whom Lynn shoved out of the way. Her ass hit the ground with a _thump._

"Hey! I was gonna use that!"

"Not anymore you're not!"

Lynn shoved two pieces of bread in, and, moving as fast as possible, set the appliance to toast them.

She paced around the kitchen, in frenzy. She tapped her foot. She began to sweat.

Why did it take so _long_ for bread to toast? Lincoln was waiting!

This was _her_ fault! She was so dumb! _Dumb dumb dumb, stupid stupid stupid._ Why did she knock Lincoln's breakfast onto the floor? She collapsed to her knees and covered her eyes, beginning to sob again. Her poor, hungry brother was upstairs waiting for his breakfast and it was all _her_ fault!

Lana watched on as Lynn began to cry.

 _What the heck is wrong with her?_ she thought.

The toast popped. Tears still streaming down her face, Lynn jolted upward and ran at full speed to the counter. She didn't want to waste time by slowing herself, so she stopped by slamming into the counter. Sharp pain hit her stomach, but right now, that was irrelevant to her. She swiped the toast, threw them on a plate that she had prepared, and began to race back upstairs.

"Lincoln!" she screamed, running up three stairs at a time. " _Your… toast… is… ready!_ "

She was at the top of the staircase, now. Lynn frantically looked left and right, left and right. Where _was_ he?!

" _What_ is going on with you?" snapped Lori, poking her head out of her room.

 _There!_ She saw Lincoln walking into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The eldest Loud speed walked over to Lynn and grabbed her by the shoulders. "The sun hasn't even come out yet, it's a Saturday morning, and you're screaming at the top of your lungs? _What's_ going on?"

Lynn gritted her teeth. Primal fury filled her. She _needed_ to get to Lincoln to give him his toast as soon as possible, and Lori was preventing her from doing so.

She struggled, trying to escape. Lori held her firmly down.

"You're not going _anywhere._ Lynn, you're literally going to tell me why you woke me up!"

Lynn's rage intensified. In the moment, she saw Lori not as her sister, but a mere obstacle preventing her from her achieving goal.

"Let… _go!_ " Lynn cried.

"What's gotten into you?!"

She couldn't take it anymore. Angry tears streamed down Lynn's face. It wasn't fair. She _needed_ to help Lincoln. She _needed_ to be there for him, to make up for her horrible treatment of her little brother. But, _nooo!_ _Lori_ had to lumber along and get in the way of things.

" _LET ME GO, BITCH!_ "

Lori gasped.

"Lynn, you _little—_ "

That was it. Lynn absolutely _had_ to get to Lincoln, no matter cost, and _now!_

She slammed the plate down over Lori's head. It shattered, and the eldest Loud's grip on Lynn faltered. A small stream of blood began to stream down the side of her face. She began to stumble backward, but Lynn didn't take notice. By now, she had already booked it down the hallway.

" _I'm coming, Lincoln!_ "

She frantically tried turning open the bathroom doorknob. It was locked.

 _No, no, NO!_

Quickly, Lynn walked backward, and then charged headfirst at full speed at the door in an attempt to knock it down. Her head made contact, and she felt dizzy. She stumbled.

Lincoln opened the door. He saw Lynn laying down on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. She slowly crawled to her brother and grabbed his legs, tightly wrapping her arms around them.

" _Lincoln!"_ she cried. "I ruined your toast! I'm a monster! Kick me, I deserve it, it's the only way I can learn, Lincoln, kick me, KICK ME, _KICK ME AS HARD AS YOU CAN I'M BEGGING YOU!_ "


	5. A Calm Before a Storm

Lynn sat in the master bedroom, on her parent's bed.

 _You sit_ right _here,_ her mother had said, pointing. _You're going to wait here until your father gets home. Then, we'll talk about just what you did, young lady!_

In her childhood, Lynn has been in this very situation for her worst infractions. When she had shattered the kitchen window with a baseball, she was sat down on her parent's bed and told to wait until her father got home. When she had knocked over the expensive family vase by playing soccer in the house, Lynn had been told to sit back down on the bed and to wait until her father's arrival. Now, here she was again, thirteen years old, never learning, always making mistakes.

Lynn _hated_ staying still. She wanted to be _outside,_ actually _doing_ something. Running, playing a sport, _anything_ but sitting in one place. It was the one thing she despised most. How could people live life like this? How could certain people sit down in front of a computer all day, working their jobs or writing degenerate fanfictions?

God might know. Lynn did not.

Road trips, too. Lynn hated those. She remembered one ride in particular, a road trip to three states away. Lynn _dreaded_ the trip ever since her parents had announced it. When it finally rolled around, she had kept herself busy by… by playing "auto attack"… hitting Lincoln whenever a car passed… _hurting_ him.

He was such a kind, selfless, caring brother, and Lynn would do anything to redeem herself to Lincoln for treating him like trash.

She began to cry, certainly not for the first time that day. _Why_ was she a terrible sister?

She wiped away her tears. _No._ No more feeling sorry for yourself. You have a job to do. She'd just have to try twice as hard. She'd have to redouble her efforts. She was Lynn Loud, dammit! She'd give ten thousand percent!

Even if it killed her.

* * *

Lincoln sat his room alone, much like Lynn directly below him in the master bedroom.

Also like Lynn, he felt regret.

 _Why_ did he think it was a good idea to trust a random man from off of the street? Especially such a weird one. There was a _catch,_ there _always_ was. Never trust someone wearing a denim jacket. What is this, the 60's? A Stephen King novel?

All he had wanted was for Lynn to feel regret for the luck incident. What he had _not_ wanted, however, was for her to go _crazy_ trying to please him. Sure, it would be nice if she didn't force him with a bat to come to her games or maybe for her to make an attempt to connect more with Lincoln, perhaps trying out a video game with him (she might even find it fun) or _maybe_ even getting him a glass of water if he wanted one while he was busy reading comics in his room.

Certainly, though, what Lincoln _didn't_ want was for her to go completely bonkers attempting to make up for her mistake. In fact, her doing so has achieved the opposite effect. Her attempts of pleasing Lincoln had, in turn, only managed to annoy him and hurt other sisters like Lori and, as Lincoln later learned, Lana. Who in the right mind pushes their 6-year-old sister onto the ground to make _toast?_

Still, Lynn couldn't be blamed. It was Lincoln's fault, and he knew this.

His first thought was to grab the hat again from under his bed, put it on, and use his second wish to revert his first wish. This idea quickly diminished, however, as Lincoln remembered how wrong things had gone the _first_ time he had made a wish.

He'd try to fix things without the hat. If he failed, he could always use it as plan B.

* * *

The mysterious man, in great strides, made his way down the street. Streetlights dimly illuminated his path. He didn't wank on the sidewalk—oh, no. He walked right in the middle of the street, passing traffic be damned. They could go around him.

He had very few memories. The man with long hair didn't even recall how he had arrived in such a small, cozy town such as Royal Woods. Still, he knew he was in the right place when he met that _boy._ The man in denim saw something special in him. It wasn't just his white hair, either. There was a _fire_ in that kid, and the mysterious man knew with the right amount of push, he could grow that fire, bigger, stronger.

It had already begun. He could tell.


End file.
